Chapter 10 Violet
VIOLET
I watch Rhett go, embarrassment coursing through me in waves.
God, why am I so awkward? I can’t even walk around a table without doing something stupid like that, and all I can think about is how I can’t believe that happened.
I wouldn’t blame Rhett for being upset about it. He’s famously particular about his personal space, and prefers to be alone most of the time, and I went and put myself in his lap with no warning.
Sawyer and Lennox are still at the table, and I glance at them. “Would you mind handling the pizza?” I ask them.
“Sure,” Lennox replies, pulling out his phone. He gives me a look, but I can’t interpret it, so I just slip away to find Rhett so I can apologize before the awkwardness can fester.
He’s in the living room, crouched down by the fireplace. He adds another log on top, arranging the others better so the new one will catch.
I walk over and put a hand on his shoulder, and he jerks a little, like he wants to be away from me. I pull my hand back quickly, curling my fingers against my palm. The last thing I want is to make this worse, but it stings, knowing he doesn’t want me to touch him.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m just clumsy, but I didn’t mean to invade your personal space like that and make it weird.”
“It’s fine,” he says, the words coming out gruff.
He adds another log to the fire and then stands up slowly, blowing out a breath.
I make a face, looking at the fireplace as the flames roar higher when they catch on the newest log. “My mom always used to say I was like a bull in a China shop. Isabelle got all the grace, and I’m left with this.” I gesture at myself, like that explains everything.
And maybe it does.
He doesn’t say anything to that, so I take another breath. “Are you okay?” I glance down at his thighs, like I can see through his jeans if I hurt him or not.
Rhett stiffens. “What do you mean?”
“Your legs are okay, right? I didn’t hurt you or anything?”
He just stares at me, frowning. After a moment, he seems to work out what I mean, and he shakes his head. “No, you didn’t. I’m fine, Violet. That’s not why I left so fast. Don’t worry about it.”
That just leaves me confused. “Then why? I know you don’t like it when people get up close and personal like that, and I thought… I don’t know. I’m not light.”
“You’re not heavy enough to hurt me by falling into my lap,” he says, like it should be obvious. “It’s…” He sighs, dragging a hand through his hair. “I wasn’t expecting it. And you landed right in my lap, and my body… reacted. I just needed a minute to calm down.”
It clicks what he’s saying all at once and I end up staring at him, shocked. Rhett had a ‘reaction’ to me? Because I was in his lap?
“Don’t look so shocked,” he says, almost sounding defensive. “I’m a red blooded man and there was a beautiful woman in my lap. I couldn’t help it.”
My stomach flutters to hear him say that. Rhett isn’t the kind of person who would go out of his way to flatter me like that, and even if he was, there’s no reason to do it now. So maybe… maybe he actually does think that.
It’s hard to wrap my mind around.
“I’m… um… I’m glad that’s all it was,” I say, desperately trying to rein in the blush that’s spreading over my cheeks for a different reason now. I’m not embarrassed anymore, just flustered to hear him say that.
Rhett looks at me, and our eyes catch and hold. There’s a frisson of tension, but it’s not uncomfortable. If anything it’s just intense, like the anticipation in the air before a lightning strike, and it makes my breath catch in my chest.
I think Rhett’s going to say something, or maybe I should, but before either of us can, the moment is broken by Sawyer calling out from the kitchen.
“What kind of pizza do you want, Vi?”
I swallow hard, shaking myself before going to answer him.
An hour or so later, the four of us are in the living room, eating pizza together.
Without discussing it, we all abandoned the idea of eating at the table, instead opting to enjoy the warmth of the fire and comfort of the couch and arm chairs. All of the tension from earlier in the day seems to have melted away, and the vibe is relaxed and cozy.
The brothers put away slice after slice of pizza, and I eat my own slices and fill them in on gossip from the town, since none of them have been back very often for the past few years.
“The last time I was here, Casey Waterson was pregnant,” Sawyer says. “But I definitely saw her with three kids earlier today. She must have moved fast.”
I nod, smiling as I pop an errant piece of sausage into my mouth.
“Oh yeah, that was a whole thing. The rumor is only two of them are hers, the twins. Her fiancé, Brian? He disappeared for like a week right after she gave birth to the twins. Left her alone with two newborns. Then he came back and had a baby with him and no one ever mentioned it.”
“Brian Maloney?” Lennox asks.
I nod.
He snorts. “Yeah, that tracks. I remember him. He was never one to keep it in his pants.”
“Can’t believe Casey is just raising all those kids after that.”
I shrug a little. “Neither can anyone else. But she was not happy the last time someone said something about it, so everyone just lets it be now.”
“Not much you can do if she doesn’t want to hear it,” Lennox says, shrugging a shoulder. “Did anyone ever find out what was going on with Mrs. Smyth?”
“Oh!” I sit up straighter, grinning. “Yeah, that was a year or so ago, I nearly forgot. What was the last thing you heard about her?”
“Last I knew, there was the rumor she was having all that work done on her house because she was seducing all the hot young contractors,” Sawyer says, waggling his eyebrows. “But people were saying that when I was a teenager, so she’s got to be too old for that stuff now, right?”
I giggle a little. “You’d think so, but you’d be wrong.”
“She got to be like a hundred by now!” Rhett says.
“Seventy-something, to hear her tell it. But it doesn’t stop the contractors from coming around. The summer before last, she had someone out working on her porch, and Dylan, the mailman says he saw them in a ‘heated embrace’ on the porch swing.”
All three of them make faces of disgust. “I don’t even want to know what that means,” Rhett says, shuddering.
“Do you think they’re just angling for better tips?” Sawyer asks. “I mean, lonely old lady with more money than shame sounds like a good way to cash in.”
“Thinking about trying your luck?” Lennox gives him a faintly amused look, and Sawyer flips him off.
“I’m not that desperate.” It lacks any of the usual bite between the three of them, and I thank the warmth and easy atmosphere for that. “Maybe Dylan the mailman just reads too many romance novels.”
“Maybe. But I’m not digging too deep into that.”
Rhett grabs another slice and takes a bite. “I don’t blame you. I wish I could unlearn all of that. What else have you got?”
“Hmm, let’s see… you remember Mr. Herbert?”
Rhett frowns, chewing and swallowing. “Old guy? Ran the video store?”
“That’s the one.”
“This isn’t going to be about him getting freaky with anyone, right?”
I laugh, shaking my head. “No, no, nothing like that. You probably noticed the video store is closed down now, right?”
They all nod. “I thought it just went out of business because everyone’s streaming shit now,” Rhett adds.
“It went out of business a few years ago. Because Mr. Herbert disappeared. One day the store just didn’t open. He didn’t sell the store or his house or anything. He just vanished.”
“What happened to his stuff?” Lennox asks.
“It’s all still there. There was a town meeting a couple years ago to see if the mayor should start trying to figure out how to legally sell his house and the store, but most people voted to leave it alone.”
“Because they think he’s coming back or for some small town superstitious shit?” Sawyer wants to know.
I laugh. “Little column A, little column B. But mostly column B.”
“Tracks.”
“I guess it’s nice that this place hasn’t changed all that much,” Lennox says. “The world can be full of horrible shit and uproar and change, but Sweetwater Lake is always going to be superstitious and weird. And gossipy.”
“Always,” I agree. “Considering how many looks we got while we were out today, there’s going to be a lot of gossip floating around about us too.”
“That was the whole point,” Sawyer says. “It’ll help sell things. The problem is that people are going to be yapping about it for years after we leave again.”
The mention of them leaving again serves as a stark remind that it’s a thing that has to happen. They all have lives elsewhere, things to take them back away from Sweetwater Lake. This is only temporary, and that’s… that’s for the best. This charade would be exhausting to keep up all the time.
“Speaking of you guys leaving,” I say, looking to Sawyer, “what do you do when you’re not here? You travel all over the place, but is that for work or just because you want to?”
Rhett snorts. “Sawyer doesn’t have a job. That would require responsibility and commitment.”
I frown, turning that over in my mind. “But wait… I know the security company you all founded fell apart, so how do you not have another job?”
That immediately is like a bucket of cold water on the warmth in the room. The tension sharpens, something going quiet and strained between all of them.
“Zephyr didn’t fall apart,” Sawyer says. “We sold it. About three years ago.”
“Oh.” I blink. “I had no idea. It must have sold well if you can afford to not work now.”
“That’s a bit of an understatement,” Lennox replies. “We’re all very comfortable now.”
“How comfortable is comfortable?”
“High nine figures.”
I have to count out how many zeros that is, and when I tick them all off on my fingers, my mouth drops open. “That’s… amazing, oh my god. I can’t believe I know three multimillionaires. You guys must have had a really good company, that’s very impressive.”
None of them seem particularly happy about it. Their faces look muted, grim, and Rhett snorts. “Yeah. It’s amazing.”
It sounds like it’s anything but.
He gets up and goes to put his boots on, going back outside. Sawyer follows his lead, but he goes in the other direction, disappearing into the kitchen. It’s clear that I’m missing something, and I feel bad for bringing it up and souring the mood.
“I didn’t mean to ruin the evening,” I say to Lennox, the only one still in the room with me. “I didn’t know it was… a bad subject?” I don’t even know why the other two are so mad. Why there’s so much tension.
Lennox takes a breath and lets it out. “It’s not your fault. Things just didn’t go well. Everything between us sort of fell apart when we sold Zephyr. Sometimes it feels like we sold our relationship with each other too.”
“Oh.” I can’t help but feel sad about that.
I remember the three of them being so close, being such a unit.
It was always the three of them, finishing each other’s sentences, laughing and joking, getting into trouble and then getting themselves back out of it again.
It explains a lot about why they are the way they are now.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur. “That has to be hard.”
A look passes over Lennox’s face, and I can tell there’s regret there. “I’ll take care of the leftovers,” he says, getting up and gathering the pizza boxes.
He takes them into the kitchen, and I hear the rustle of drawers before he slips into the office, closing the door behind him.
I stay in the living room by myself, no longer feeling as warm and cozy as I did before.